In a sequence of events that neatly captures the contradictions of Barack Obama’s rise through Illinois politics, a phone call he made three months ago to urge passage of a state ethics bill indirectly contributed to the downfall of a fellow Democrat he twice supported, Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich.

So Obama possesses such mystical powers, an innocuous phone call of three months ago greased the skids for his pal Blagojovich.

That is right. Barack Obama -- a man mired in the swamp of Chicago Machine politics, wholehearted supporter of Rod Blagojevich, close friend of convicted criminal Tony Rezko (center for the pay to play scandal that led to the arrest of Blogojevich), close pal of the Stroger political machine, ally of State Senate President Emil Jones, Junior (who has his own ethical problems), pals with state treasurer Alexi Giannoulias (dogged by ties to the "mob", and with a history of suspicious loans made by his family-run bank) -- gets credited by the New York Times for "intervening" on an Ethics Bill that "indirectly" led to the case against the Governor.

And tomorrow, he shall make the sun rise.

Update: By the way, since a reader asked, KHQA is a CBS affiliate based in Hannibal, Missouri. You can email them at khqa@khqa.com.

Update: A commenter notes:

Keep in mind that many outlets are notorious for deleting stories after a few weeks, resulting in the ubiquitous dead link from a blog.

Locate a few control stories from the same time period. If they're still online, *then* pull out the big guns.Cover Me, Porkins 12.10.08 - 10:04 pm

On a campaign web site, a candidate and his staff would understandably rid themselves of anything embarrassing so that the candidate didn’t have to answer for it. Obama stopped being a candidate on November 4th, and became the President-Elect. We know this, because Obama has a government website and a big sign that says ‘OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT-ELECT’ with his faux seal at every press conference.

In other words, it’s time for accountability. If Obama doesn’t want to answer tough questions, he should stop trolling for them on official government websites. And since we’re all paying for it, nobody should be able to force those questions off of an official government website.

Thanks again to Jim at Gateway Pundit for the screen shots, as I was having problems uploading the first image.

Update: The fun continues. As Doug Ross notes, the Chicago Tribune also reported on an Obama-Blagojevich meeting.

David Axelrod, KHQA and now the venerable Chicago Tribune all independently reported that Governor Blagojevich and Barack Obama held discussions regarding his Senate replacement. That now makes four different sources (KHQA had two articles on the topic) that referenced one or more meetings that Obama said never took place. Who would you believe: me or your lying eyes?